The Kobe Bryant story.

All right, so when I was 10 years old my mom and I were going on a trip for the weekend. I was a huge Knicks fan growing up. It was the 90s and they were actually good and that was exciting. I fell asleep the night before during the game and the internet didn’t exist yet so I didn’t have a cell phone i could check. The only option was a newspaper and we didn’t have one. So my mom fell asleep on the train and as I was sitting there kind of bored. I could see these two men sitting – I don’t know, maybe eight or so rows ahead of me – and they both had newspapers. I could tell because they were both really tall so you could kind of just see the back of their head and then this big newspaper and i decided that i was going to go ask them to borrow sports pages. I was kind of nervous about it because I was 10, but my mom was asleep so it also felt like this dangerous little activity I was going to go pursue. I think I decided that they must be athletes because they were tall ,so part of me thought ‘I’ll just tell them that I’m an athlete ,too, and then this will be fine.’ So I walked between the two of them and, uh, I think i did tap his hand um and say, ” Excuse me can I borrow the sports pages?”, and the guy on the left said to me, “Why do you want the sports pages?” And I said, ” Well because I’m a basketball player”. I’m pretty sure he laughed at that point because I was this like scrawny little girl at that point so he kind of fumbled through the newspaper and gave me the sports section. I was starting to thank him and turning to walk away and he said , “Wait, would you mind if I ask you a question?” And I said ‘ “Sure.” He said, ” Do you know who Kobe Bryant is?” I remember feeling embarrassed because I didn’t know who that is. And then he said, ” Well, come sit down sit with us for a minute, he’s going to ask you a question.” And that’s when I sat down next to Kobe Bryant! I remember he was kind of half leaning against the window, half facing me. I was between the two of them kind of looking back and forth trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually Kobe asked me if I thought that all high school athletes should go to college as opposed to going directly to the Pros. He didn’t come across as cocky and self-assured, he came across as a kid who was asking another kid what to do. I was a pretty precocious little kid so I immediately started lecturing him that everyone should go to college and that it was important for his future and his career and what if it doesn’t work out in the NBA? Then Kobe said to me that he had to decide tomorrow whether he was going to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers or not ,and then I told him that i still thought he should go to college. He takes the newspaper from me and offers to sign it and i have a copy of the picture here. It says ‘to Amy best wishes Kobe Bryant number 33 ‘and I proudly took it back to the schoolyard and showed all of my 10 year old friends who were duly impressed. This happened almost 20 years ago now and you might think that it was just some random story that happened to me at this point, but i’m now a middle school teacher and this story is like the coolest thing that’s ever happened. Whenever I retell it kids get really excited and say, ” Tell me the Kobe story again,” and it gives me a lot of credit with my students. So thanks, Kobe.

We divide the Simple Past Tense verbs into Regular and Irregular verbs to make them easier to study.

Be cautious when you pronounce these regular verbs.

The spelling of regular verbs in the Simple Past Tense

Irregular Simple Past Tense Verbs

Here are some examples of irregular verbs. There is no rule for the formation of irregular verbs. You need to memorise them!

The verb ‘to be’ in the Simple Past.

The Hare and the Tortoise

Complete the story with the past simple form of the irregular verbs. Use the table on the blog to help you. 

The Hare and the Tortoise 

One day the hare and the tortoise decided to have a race. The hare (1)_______ (know) that he (2)_________ (can) run faster than the tortoise. But the tortoise (3) _______ (be) more intelligent than the hare.’Yes, I’ll race you,’ (4)_________ (say) the clever tortoise. The tortoise (5) _____ (have) a clever plan. He (6)__________ (find) his brothers and sisters and he (7)__________ (tell) them to wait in different places along the path of the race. So they all (8)_________ (hide) behind the trees along the path. The race (9)_______ (begin)! The tortoise (10)______ (run) as fast as possible. But the hare (11) _______ (be) faster, of course. ‘This will be a very easy race’,(12)  _________ (think) the hare. So the hare (13)____________ (decide) to have a rest, and he quickly (14)_______ (fall) asleep at the side of the road. Suddenly, the hare (15)_________________ (wake up) and he (16)_________ (see) a tortoise ahead of him! ‘How did he get ahead of me?’ the hare asked himself. In fact, it (17) _________ (be) not his friend the tortoise: it (18)__________ (be) the tortoise’s sister. But to a hare, all tortoises look the same. The hare (18)_________ (run) past the tortoise easily. Soon, he (19)_____________ (can’t) see the tortoise, so he (20)__________ (sit) down and he (21)__________ (have) another rest. Then the hare (22)___________ (get up) and continued the race. But – as the hare happily (23)___________ (come) around the last corner before the finish line – his friend the tortoise crossed the line and (24)_________ (win) the race! 

Make yourself a calendar like the one below. Write down notes on what you did last week. Use your notes to write a paragraph.

Sequencing Events

When we tell a story we often use sequence words like the ones in the template below to show the order in which things happened.

Write down directions :

(a) from the school to the bank

(b) from the library to the petrol / gas station

(c) from the bank to the police station

Prepositions of place describe the position of a person or a thing in relation to another person or thing.

Prepositions of Place : at, in, on

In general we use:

• at for a POINT
• in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
• on for a SURFACE

Describe this room in O’Donovan’s Hotel

Work in pairs.

What are domestic animals?

Domestic animals are once-wild animals that have been captured for many years and conditioned to adapt to different living conditions in the farm or households. Mainly, they are captured for economic reasons. Pets are domestic animals, but they were animals that were originally captured for companionship and not for economic reasons. Pets stay with humans in the household most of the time. Other domestic animals, on the other hand, seldom stay in the households. Both pets and domestic animals depend on humans for survival.

Look at the pictures below. Which of these animals are domestic animals? Which ones are wild?

Draw a table with two columns like the one below. Make a list of as many wild and domestic animals you can think of. Put their names in the right columns.

Can you think of some common pets people have at home in your country?

What do you need to do to care for a pet and keep it healthy?

Do you know of anyone who has more unusual animals at home – animals that are not normally domesticated but usually live in the wild?

What problems do they have taking care of wild animals?

Listen to the introduction:

What kind of animal is being talked about?

What do you think has happened to it?

Did the local people like the animal? How do you know?

What was the animal’s name?

Listen to the next part:

Where did Tojo come from and who was he travelling with?

Where was the plane going? Why did it get lost? Where did the plane land?

Where did the American soldiers stay? How did the local people react to them?

What happened to the plane?

Look at the websites on this page. Find out:

• An amenity is something that is intended to make life more pleasant or comfortable for people e.g. hair dryers in every room, gym, wi-fi, pet-friendly spaces, parking etc. What amenities does the hotel offer?
• How much does a room cost?
• What are check-in and check out times?
• How many stars does this hotel have? What does this mean?
• Find two reviews of this hotel – one good one and one bad one. What did people like /dislike about this hotel? Why do you think these people’s opinions differed?